


[.teddybear picnic]

by devilishMendicant



Category: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Transformation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:21:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26891347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devilishMendicant/pseuds/devilishMendicant
Summary: Sayori isn’t a very punitive person - so what to do when Monika wants, nay, needs a punishment before she'll let herself come home?
Relationships: Monika & Sayori (Doki Doki Literature Club!)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> my singular talent is writing crack fics but like... seriously and on purpose. im allowed to write stories where monika gets hugs and by god that's all im gonna do for the rest of my life

_”You know what? I think I just came up with a_ **_perfect_ ** _punishment for you!”_

* * *

Monika was such a _stubborn butt._

This is Sayori’s perfectly unbiased, science-supported and heavily lauded opinion. _President Sayori’s_ opinion, even!

Well, temporary-sorta-kinda-President, really. Sayori is very aware that the only reason she is currently President of the Literature Club is because the actual President is taking an extended vacation.

In space.

To sulk.

Okay, okay, not _really_ in space. In stars-and-planets-space, that is, she was definitely in... physical... space. Somewhere. The details on Monika’s exact location were fuzzy, probably intentionally; really the only way Sayori can tell where to be, every time she comes to try and twist her arm into coming back already, is to aim for Where Monika Is. She herself, and the plain wooden desk, perhaps, are the only real landmarks available.

And, Sayori supposes, it’s not like she’s really _sulking_ either. As frustrated as she was by now, she can understand that Monika is - how do you say - undergoing a lot of gigantic and tumultuous feelings about the whole, you know, messing with the spacetime continuum and being-not-incredibly-kind-to-her-only-friends-in-the-process thing that had happened. Sayori just wishes that she’d undergo some of that in _not_ a black void in the middle of literally nowhere, because,

Because honestly even Sayori felt _bad_ coming out here. Plain bad. Being in The Middle Of Nowhere activated extremely primal Bad Feelings and Sayori would like to think, at least _now,_ that she was in a slightly _less_ emotionally volatile state than Monika, even. How was she supposed to stop feeling like garbage if she was intentionally locking herself up in a room-thing that made you feel like garbage?

Of course, Monika was hearing none of this whatsoever.

“Sayori, I’m _not going,”_ she groans, by this point head-down, face-in-arms on the desk. “Nobody wants me there. Honestly, I don’t even think _you_ do.”

“How much more clear can I make it that I do?! Monika! I am _standing in a void to talk to you!”_ A wide gesture of the arms. “You are _the only thing here!”_

“Desk.”

“I think I would have convinced the desk by now!”

 _”Sayori,”_ Monika says, “I’m not, going. I’m not going. _No._ Absolutely not.”

”Why?”

“Because I fucked up all your lives on a whim and even though you _say_ you don’t, you hate me for it—”

“I don’t visit a lot of people I hate twice a week, Monika.”

“You just don’t know it yet,” Monika mutters. “You do. You will. You _should.”_

“What is gonna prove to you that I really truly positively absolutely one-hundred-and-five-percent do _not_ hate you.”

 _”Nothing!_ You can’t— you _can’t_ convince me that you don’t not hate me! What the hell did _I_ do, huh, I fucked you all over and then ran off into a—“

A wide gesture of the arms.

“Stupid _void!_ You’re the only person in the _entire world_ who knows where I went and the whole time you’ve just been asking when I’m going to come back and pretend nothing happened with that— with that _fake_ smile on your face! I’m _not coming back!”_

... well. _Rude._

Sayori’s smile (which certainly was not _fake,_ although maybe it was a little more put-on than it would naturally be) slides away from her face, not that Monika really notices - she’s _worked up_ now, which usually ends with her throwing out every negative assumption she could possibly make about Sayori’s motives in one go and then, _really_ childishly and _almost_ kinda funny if not for the rather bleak surroundings, hiding under the Desk. 

_What_ **_has_ ** _Monika done?_

Well. Nothing, really, in a few manners of speaking. Sayori set things back to normal, as they should be, so outside of some admittedly terrible memories, Monika hasn’t drastically altered the course or outcome of their lives (except maybe, if she continued to sit in this void until she died, her own). Monika _also_ hasn’t really... done anything during her self-imposed exile, not that there’s much she could be doing with herself and A Desk and absolutely nothing else.

Was, perhaps, _that_ the problem? That Monika felt like she hadn’t done anything to deserve coming back, yet? It was hardly like Sayori had asked her to banish herself in the first place; she’d come to and Monika was gone and she’d had a brand new set of extremely crazy universe-distortion superpowers. Maybe Monika had been so afraid that Sayori would try to respond in kind that she’d run away— maybe she was afraid that Sayori was planning on doing that _right now,_ that this was some kind of setup. That was sorta frustrating. Sayori would _never_ and she would have hoped that Monika would know that, but...

... but, regardless of that reality, Monika just seemed to be... _expecting_ something. Some kind of retribution, punishment, _anything_ more than a good strong talking-to, apparently — _why,_ Sayori doesn’t quite know, but it’s very clear that she isn’t going to let herself exist in a normal spacetime until she gets some kind of slap on the wrist. 

So Sayori is going to have to give her some kind of slap on the wrist, because last time she checked she was the only person on the planet who had the coordinates to The Middle Of Nowhere.

This is more than a little out of Sayori’s depth. She isn’t a very punitive person - jokingly demanding a cookie over a poorly-worded joke hardly a punishment makes. But Sayori, more than anything, wants her _club_ back together again, and while she’s at it she would like to not see Monika nearly in tears at a stupid little wooden school desk, alone, in a complete and total void.

What she _really_ wants is to give Monika one big dumb real _hug,_ but she can’t even do that; last time she tried she’d gotten rather harshly pushed away, and Monika had started _right_ in on how she shouldn’t be trying to hold someone so awf—

Hm.

Sayori straightens her back, crosses her arms, and levels a challenging _look_ at Monika.

_“You know what?”_

_That_ gets Monika to stop babbling, and - internally, of course - Sayori preens a little. Her no-nonsense _President_ voice has really been picking up steam recently.

“I just thought of the _perfect_ punishment for you,” she continues, looking as dead-serious as she can possibly muster. “You _did_ act like kind of a jerk, didn’t you? Told all of us horrible things and sat and watched what happened when we believed you.”

Well, _now_ Monika looks scared. _Really_ scared, actually, and Sayori feels a kind of pang in her chest that she doesn’t like too much, but she presses on.

“I think you could do with taking a little bit of _revenge_ over that, don’t you? Get over here, _right_ now.”

To Monika’s credit, she does! Even under threat of unknown methods of vengeance, she’s a good listener, which honestly does not make Sayori feel less guilty about the serious voice. 

“Sit. Down.”

Monika does, looking briefly puzzled as to why she’s being ordered to sit _on_ the desk rather than at it.

And then, finally, Sayori allows herself a truly _wicked_ grin.

“I think I know _just_ how to cure you of saying such nasty things, miss Monika~!”

* * *

Oh, Monika fucked up.

Well, you know. She knew she fucked up from the start, really, but - _now_ \- Monika really fucked up. She’d never even _heard_ Sayori use that kind of voice before; not that she was very familiar with Sayori outside of club activities, but...

Now was really not the time to dwell on that note, though! Nor the notes of how little she knew anyone else in her own - Sayori’s own club, either, or the notes of how absolutely piss-poor she’d acted or how useless her superhuman abilities turned out to be or how horrible of a person she apparently was when the chips were down, or, any number of other things she’d been contemplating for what she thinks might have been several months by now. She doesn’t know. Not long enough, that’s for sure - she certainly positively _fucked up_ and, well, nice clubs and places that actually existed and kind acquaintances coming to check up on your self-imposed exile were not for monumental fuck-ups such as Monika, which is why it was so frustrating that the latter kept insisting on giving her back the former.

Monika really did not understand why Sayori would not, in the slightest, hear reason about this. Monika, said Monika herself, was a _very bad person._ Who had done very bad things, and thusly, deserved to be kept away from very nice things. Nice things you had to earn, from being nice, which Monika wasn’t, and therefore shouldn’t have. To all of this, Sayori said “phooey just come home already you big dumb baby”, which was _rude_ and _completely_ missing the point of everything.

Monika couldn’t _just come home._ For one thing, nobody on Earth was as understanding as Sayori, so the other members of the club probably hated her guts and didn’t want to see her anywhere near them for the rest of time, which Monika thought was perfectly reasonable and preemptively completely agreed with. For another, Monika hadn’t even managed to say sorry to Sayori yet. It would probably take a very long time, because she had a _lot_ to apologize for, and Sayori had barely even let her just say a regular _”I’m sorry”_ before bugging her to come back from Nowhere, and then they were arguing about that every time. Monika didn’t even know where to start saying sorry, and Sayori probably wouldn’t even want to hear it, and she wasn’t even sure if it would _count_ for anything because what kind of sorry even makes up for all of the terrible things that she’d done? 

Monika just wasn’t— _good._ She wasn’t good enough to leave Nowhere. She wasn’t good enough to exist anymore, and Sayori didn’t understand that, and it was so hard to sit here every time and not _cry_ from the absolute hopelessness of it all but she did it anyway because crying over something terrible that _she_ did, to _other people,_ would just make her even _worse,_ and she doesn’t know anywhere worse to send herself than Nowhere.

Although right now, hearing Sayori _finally_ snap at her, Monika is very very very nearly ready to be worse and cry _extremely_ and just get it all over with.

But she doesn’t. She stands up, like Sayori told her to, and sits down on the desk and tries very hard not to shudder and also not to look too confused by whatever Sayori’s planning, because whatever it is she _does_ deserve it, even if she can’t tell what it is - and as terrifying as Sayori’s serious tone is she almost feels relieved, in a way, that she’s finally going to _do something_ about Monika instead of uselessly waving good things that she doesn’t deserve around in her face. Yes. Monika did very, _very_ bad things and now _finally_ Sayori is going to do something about it, is going to tell her that Monika isn’t allowed at club anymore, or that they can’t be friends, or that she has to stay here alone for one trillion years and then Sayori will be back to hear Monika’s _very_ long sorry, or maybe she’ll just punch her or even—

 _“I think I know_ **_just_ ** _how to cure you of saying such nasty things, miss Monika~!”_

Monika screws her eyes shut and waits for something, _anything,_ to happen.

And...

...

... ah, something _does._

A sort of - there’s sort of a _quiver_ through her whole entire body, which she thinks is just her scared-ness for a second until the massive wave of vertigo hits and that’s how she knows it’s part of the punishment.

She sits for a moment, queasy and dazed, wondering briefly if that terrible feeling was all there was until she feels a very, very strange sensation creeping up her legs and arms. Kind of, tingly, fuzzy, like pins-and-needles but not really; not _painful,_ that was it. Just... very strange and vague and leaving a warm, soft feeling in its wake that seems kind of at-odds with the idea of _revenge._

Then creeping up her stomach and chest as well, leaving that weird softness behind that was kind of making her feel less trembly, now. She was certain her heart was beating a mile a minute before but now it seems to be thumping along at a normal rate, somewhat muted and feeling nearly cushioned in her chest, which isn’t unpleasant at all and, again, rather counterpoint to Sayori’s stated goal.

Maybe the revenge part is coming when it climbs up to cover her head, she thinks, but - nothing seems to be suddenly _scary,_ or righteously cruel; her head feels tingly and fuzzy for a minute and then it just feels _warm,_ and sort of full of cotton balls, without any of the frightening panic that usually accompanied that sensation. 

She feels _unusually_ calm, actually. Her heart is beating nice and slow, and she’s warm from the tips of her ears to her toes; her breathing feels gentle and even, too, and experimentally wiggling her fingers yields a feeling of exceptional _softness,_ like she’s been pushed into a big cushy fluffy cloud of... warmness, and. And soft. (Her thoughts seem to also have been slowed down from their panicky rein, though, now the _inside_ of her head feels warm and soft too but - she isn’t sure she wants to consider that very hard right now.)

And then she feels Sayori’s hands gently brush past her neck, fiddling and pulling and tying something carefully into position behind her.

Then she giggles.

“Well, aren’t _you_ a handsome little thing!”

_Huh?_

Monika blinks her eyes open to find that she’s now certainly much, _much_ smaller than she was before - that Sayori is looking very proud of herself - and that her feet are looking awfully brown, fluffy, and... paw-ish.

“Mmhm, you really are! I _knew_ you’d make for the cutest teddy bear in the whole world!” Sayori continues, very much sounding like she’s talking to herself as she brushes the fur on Monika’s arms into place. 

The... the fur. On Monika’s teddy bear... arms. 

Monika is a teddy bear. 

_Sayori turned her into a teddy bear?!_

If teddy bears could talk, Monika is sure she would have some choice words about how very strange and weird and not— not exactly punishment-feeling this punishment was, although, being a teddy bear meant that Monika couldn’t really do anything if Sayori decided, maybe, to leave her there on the desk forever. _That_ would certainly be a punishment, because Monika can’t move anymore, and even being a teddy bear doesn’t stop her from feeling a little faint at the thought. Or maybe Sayori was planning to pick apart all her seams, one by one? Or— or she was going to— 

… or she was going to...

It was... very hard to think about what scary things Sayori could do to a very defenseless Monika when every gentle touch against her fur felt _very_ nice and cozy, like all her fluff inside was conducting all the goodness of teddy bears directly to her. Monika can’t even _remember_ the last time somebody patted her on the shoulder, much less pet her fuzzy little arm, so it’s kind of short-circuiting her thoughts a little bit. This would probably be frustrating if it wasn’t so very _nice,_ which, isn’t Monika supposed to not have nice things, like Sayori smiling at her while stroking Monika’s soft little nosey and making all the thinks left in her head only about niceness and warms and loves and, _oh,_ and Sayori is picking her _up,_

“Yeah, the cuddliest, softest teddy there ever was,” Sayori sighs, picking Monika up under both fluffy arms and bringing her to her chest, wrapping big, warm human arms around soft, snuggly teddy-bear back as she nuzzles into the tippy top of Monika’s plushy head. “Oh, Monika, I wanted to hug you so _much—“_

And Monika, captured by the warmth of Sayori’s arms and the sincerity of her words, nuzzled and hugged and whispered right into her - blinks, utterly love-drunk as only a held teddy bear is, and believes her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello i am back with: senseless fluff. 
> 
> (the story is pretty cute too i guess *pokes monika in the nose*)

“... Sayori,” Natsuki says, squinting at the brown lump of fluff seated atop the teacher’s desk. “Did you bring a  _ teddy bear _ to  _ school?” _

It’s a pretty peaceful scene, all considered; President Sayori tacking up a cute poster to the back wall, Yuri already seated at a desk and reading (as usual) by the time Natsuki walks in. The window is open, there is a soft breeze blowing through the sun-lit room, and honestly this is the only part of it all that’s sticking out like a sore thumb - well - okay, it  _ would _ be kind of on-brand for Sayori, Natsuki mentally concedes, but really, is the teacher that lets them use the room gonna let Sayori decorate it  _ this _ darn much?

“Yes!” Sayori chirps, sashaying up behind Natsuki just as the shorter of the pair gives the teddy an experimental tap on the nose. “Pretty cute, huh?”

“Um... yeah,” Natsuki says, tilting her head quizzically towards Sayori, “But you’re a  _ high-schooler, _ not some kid in third grade. Didn’t your teachers give you some kinda lip about it, or did you just cram it in your locker all day?”

“Aw, Natsu, that’d just be mean! I brought her with me to class,” Sayori replies, waving a hand, “She just sat on my lap the whole time, didn’t make a fuss or anything!”

“... she.” Says Natsuki, deadpan, to which Sayori actually seems to  _ brighten, _ clapping her hands together with a bounce.

“Oh! Right right right! I forgot to tell you, I was going to once you got here!”

“...  _ go on?” _ Natsuki asks, casting another, now concerned glance towards the teddy bear. You know, now that she’s gotten a second look at the thing, the shade of brown in its fluff is kinda...  _ weirdly _ familiar. As is the shape of the ribbon tied around its...

“O~kay, everyone!  _ I _ have an announcement to make!” Sayori says, standing square at the front of the room. Yuri startles slightly, quickly slipping a bookmark into her novel and giving the pair in front an odd look.

“Is this about—“

“It’s about the teddy bear,” Natsuki sighs, and Sayori grins as she picks up the soft little thing and holds it up in front of her.

“Guess who’s back from her trip to Nowheresville~!”

Natsuki’s mouth falls open; Yuri’s eyes widen a fraction, glancing between the teddy bear and Sayori with no small amount of confusion.

“Sayori,  _ what.” _

“It’s Monika~!” Sayori hums, hugging the soft toy closer to her chest. “Iiiiii finally got her ba~ack.”

“That’s, um... a teddy bear, Sayori.” Yuri points out. Sayori nods, beaming.

“Yup!”

“... s... so?”

“Well, it’s kinda part of a punishment thing,” Sayori says, quite flippantly - she gently places the bear  _ (Monika?) _ back down at the desk before skipping up to the whiteboard, uncapping a marker and drawing a small diagram.

“See, okay, remember how I told you guys she reeeeeeally wasn’t having it when I told her to come back and everything?”

“Yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Well! I think I finally got to the bottom of it!” Sayori exclaims. “As long as there’s  _ soooome _ kind of punishment involved, I think that’ll count, you know, as making up for... you know!  _ Starting _ to, at least. Plus, um,” Sayori continues, a bit less confidently, “She’s, really really  _ really _ sure we don’t like her anymore at all. Even a little.”

Yuri frowns, tilting her head to the side. “I... see? Er, how exactly is this... a  _ punishment, _ then?”

“How is it  _ not?” _ Natsuki says, poking the bear in the stomach for emphasis. “You really wanna be stuck in something without  _ muscles, _ Yuri?”

“I mean, well, it’s not that bad in  _ that _ way. I think,” Says Sayori, putting the finishing touches on her diagram. “I mean, I’ve been carrying her around all day and I think she really likes it!”

“... how can you  _ tell?” _

“Oh, you can tell. You’re  _ currently _ poking a sleeping bear, Nats.”

“Oh, so she can’t  _ hear _ anymore, either?”

“She’s stuffed with fluff, it’s gotta be a little bit muffled and all! Anyway, be nice, okay, she can still feel you prodding her...”

“Fine, fine. Sheesh. Going to educate us on that diagram there, chief?”

“Oh! Yes! Heeeere’s what I’m thinking is our plan~!”

_ Our _ plan seemed a little like pushing the definition of the word ‘our’, there, but Natsuki and Yuri do both look over Sayori’s scribbly penmanship (and doodles to match).

“... so...” Natsuki says, slowly, “Your plan is to... hug the grump out of Monika.”

Sayori pouts. “Aw, c’mon, it’s a  _ little _ more complicated than that!”

“That  _ is _ about what it looks like from where I’m sitting,” Yuri says, frowning, “Give or take the word ‘your’. Sayori, your proposal is that we  _ all _ take turns... hugging the recalcitrance out of Monika?”

“We’re not playing Scrabble, Yuri.”

“Nats, I think hearing Yuri say ‘grump’ would break the spacetime continuum again.”

“There’s no  _ way _ you knew that word yesterday.”

“I asked my Physics teacher about it two weeks ago! Anyway,” Sayori says, tapping the board with her capped pen, “Yes, the plan is that all of us hug Monika until she’s not so sad she doesn’t wanna be home anymore. Basically~! Less basically is that we gotta take turns because my parent isn’t gonna let us have a sleepover for like, a whole week. I only got that by them once.”

Natsuki wisely elects not to ask about the one time that happened, nor the consequences of such. “Sayori,  _ I’m _ not gonna bring a teddy bear to school, are you kidding me?”

“Aw, Natsu, you just gotta bring her home a couple times, that’s all!” Sayori whines, putting on her absolute best pair of puppy-dog eyes. “She’s just gotta know you don’t hate her or anything...”

“I’m not really sure that dragging her around as a stuffed toy is gonna make that any clearer to her, Sayo.”

“But she’s a  _ teddy bear,” _ Sayori says. “They’re  _ made _ to love hugs and cuddles and getting carried places!”

“... well, it doesn’t sound like  _ that _ bad of a plan,” Yuri admits, thumb rubbing at the side of her chin as she thinks. “I suppose physically comforting someone is a very strong indicator that one doesn’t  _ hate _ them, and that counterbalanced with the inherent helplessness of being something that can’t move or speak on its own... does sound both effective as a punishment  _ and _ reassurance.”

“She  _ can’t _ talk, right.” Natsuki says, eyes darting to Sayori, and Sayori shakes her head. 

“Nope! Just a regular old darling little teddy bear! A little bit weighted but I did that because it makes hugs nicer.”

“... okay,” Natsuki says, still looking a little suspicious. “How can we tell that she’s  _ awake, _ then?”

“I told you, you’ll know! She can see you and hear you and all, y’know, so—“

“So we’ll feel like we’re getting watched by a teddy bear.”

“Not like  _ thaaaat,” _ Sayori huffs. “You’ll see! It’ll be fine, I  _ promise.” _

“So, erm. What’s  _ that _ part on the board, then?” Yuri interjects, nodding towards a messy illustration of what seemed to be Monika, but also Sayori and a teddy bear to the side.

“Oh! See, this is good for another reason, too!” Sayori brightens, tapping towards her drawing proudly. “See, over here is Monika—“

“Uh-huh.”

“And she’s sad, cos she feels bad an’ she doesn’t know what to do about it—“

“... yes?”

“And over  _ here _ is Monika but a teddy bear and she’s getting big hugs!”

“Yeah?”

“And you feel really nice when you get big hugs,  _ so, _ then when Monika gets to be a big person again, she’ll know that hugs make you feel better and when she gets sad feelings she can ask for hugs instead of running away again~!”

Natsuki and Yuri blink.

“It’s  _ science,”  _ Sayori insists.

“... that’s very... Sayori... of you to say,” Yuri manages. Natsuki rolls her eyes.

“You really have a way with words, Sayo.”

Sayori pouts. “But I’m  _ right, _ right?”

Natsuki briefly mulls this over.

“... I  _ guess? _ I dunno what kind of person gets to their last year of high school without knowing that, uh,”

“Physical contact helps regulate mood... although,” Yuri concedes, frowning, “I suppose there’s no harm in reinforcing the concept?”

“Exactly! Even if I’m totally wrong and Monika  _ does _ know how great hugs are and that it’s okay to need them and it’s fine to ask for help from your friends if you’re sad—“

_ (Ohhhh, _ think Yuri and Natsuki, concurrently.)

“Then she just gets to know it’s still true~!” Sayori grins. “Because I am a super master planner of friend helping skills~.”

“You suuuure are,” Says Natsuki, dryly. “Remind me not to look too un-hugged around you, unless I wanna get turned into some kind of Build-a-Bear.”

“Heeeey!”

“So. Er,” Yuri says, not wanting to stray too far from the topic at hand, “Which one of us is going to... take Monika home first?”

“Oh! Well, she got to spend all night with me already,” Says Sayori, “I was thinking one of you should!”

“...  _ which _ one of us?”

“Whoever wants to!”

  
  


This is how Monika wakes up to Natsuki and Yuri playing  _ jan-ken-pon _ in the middle of the clubroom.

“Yay, Yuri wins~!”

“Ah, so, I’ll be first, then,” Yuri says, looking thoughtfully back down at the hand she’d thrown. “... although, Sayori, I don’t thi—“

Sayori lightly nudges her shoulder, nodding towards the desk. Where Monika is, and Yuri blushes slightly and doesn’t finish whatever it was she was going to say.

“Oh,” Says Natsuki, eyes going wide. “You  _ can _ totally tell. That’s so weird.”

“Be niiiice,” sighs Sayori, who trots over to the desk to— pick Monika up!!

Being picked up by Sayori was absolutely becoming one of Monika’s most favorite things. It had been a little bit nerve-wracking at first, since, Monika is a teddy bear and can’t hold onto Sayori no matter how much she flexes her (ghost-y?) fingers about the soft stuffing in her paws, but she’s learned very very quickly that Sayori is not the type of person to drop her teddies, and also that Sayori is very warm and very snuggly when she carries Monika and she feels very safe. 

Poking out of a backpack, earlier today (she thinks, since the sun still looks up), had been an odd new experience, but Sayori had zipped her in tight enough that it didn’t feel scary, exactly. Just rather bouncy, and a lot of people gave her either very odd looks or very fond pats on the head when they thought Sayori wasn’t looking. Or when she was. Sayori seemed to be okay with people patting Monika’s head, and it  _ was _ a very nice feeling that made her stuffing all extra fluffy inside, so she couldn’t really complain even if she  _ could _ really complain (which she couldn’t).

She must have fallen asleep on Sayori’s lap, at some point... Monika vaguely remembers something about math that for  _ once _ she wasn’t very obliged to listen to, not that the teacher sounded very intelligible from so far away (Monika figures it’s probably difficult to hear far away through all the stuffing in her ears, so she isn’t extremely concerned about it), and Sayori was holding her on her lap and petting her nicely with her not-writing hand and, oh, yes. Monika definitely fell asleep when Sayori started rubbing her little teddy ears, which happened last night, too. It’s possibly the very nicest feeling Monika has ever felt, even considering being snuggled up in a great big hug or having her arms pet gently or her nosey stroked, and being a teddy bear meant that dozing off in class because you were being petted by your nice big friend was just fine.

Even if waking up in another room entirely was a little bit disorienting, it was also a little bit nice because it meant Sayori carried her all the way here even though she wouldn’t have realized it if she’d been left behind. It was a lot nice, actually, even if it is getting harder and harder to think of anything mean Sayori might do to a helpless teddy bear, it is still very easy to think of being accidentally forgotten and that does not make Monika feel very good.

... what, exactly, had her point been here again?

_ Oh! _

Sayori gently deposits the teddy -  _ Monika _ \- into Yuri’s lap, looking quite proud of herself, indeed.

“O-Oh! She  _ is _ weighted,” Yuri says, surprised, tentatively putting a careful hand on Monika’s soft little head. “That...  _ is _ very nice.”

“Of course you’d like that,” Natsuki says, rolling her eyes briefly as she crouches down to look Monika in the face. Monika isn’t  _ entirely _ sure she likes her expression, or the hand hovering rather close to her...

...  _ poke! _

Belly!

“Natsuuu,” Sayori scolds, but— oh. All three people glance down towards Monika, because,

…  _ poke? _

The kind of  _ feeling _ that made the trio of them quite aware that Monika was currently awake...  _ lifts, _ sort of, for a brief and sudden moment.

Natsuki  _ grins. _

“Sayo~ri,” She says, devious as anything, “Your teddy bear is  _ ticklish.” _

... oh, uh-oh. Monika takes a few moments longer than Natsuki to put together the problem she has at hand; namely, that her tummy is ticklish and she can’t exactly  _ move _ anywhere to—  _ uh- _ oh.

But, mercifully, Yuri brings her hands around Monika quite protectively.

“Oh, Natsuki, don’t be mean... she can’t even defend herself!”

“Aw, c’mooooon. She’s  _ suppoooosed _ to be getting a punishment, a couple minutes of tickling wouldn’t be  _ that _ bad!”

“Still, she’s  _ defenseless! _ That’s terribly rude—“

“Hehe, hey, I bet her paws are just as—“

_ Eeep! _

“I knew it~!”

“Natsukiii!”

“Hey, hey, calm down a little, guys,” Sayori giggles, quickly putting a hand between Monika-and-Yuri and Natsuki. “Natsu,  _ you _ can take her home tomorrow and win all the tickle fights with a teddy bear that you want, okay?”

“H—Hey!” Natsuki humphs, cheeks flushing a tad pink at that. Monika, meanwhile, is still catching up with...

“Mm, yes.  _ I _ get to say what goes for Monika today,” Says Yuri, giving the little bear on her lap a soft squeeze. “And let’s  _ not _ torture the poor thing with a play fight she can’t win, hm?”

“Fiiiiiine. You guys are such spoilsports,” Natsuki sighs. “Off the hook for  _ now, _ I guess.”

“Good~. Sayori, was that— well, all of this, the only announcement you had... ?”

“Oh! Well... yes. Kind of. We  _ should _ still share our poems,” Sayori giggles, “But other than that we’re alllll caught up!”

“Wait, are we sharing our poems with Monika, too? I don’t think teddy bears can read.”

Can too! A little. ... maybe. Monika realizes she hasn’t actually had any time to try and test that, but, she can see just fine... that probably means she can read. She certainly can’t  _ talk, _ though - anything she tries to say just sounds very muffled and soft in her head which she thinks is also owing to the stuffing, and it doesn’t ever seem to get Sayori’s attention, which means that she certainly isn’t going to be giving any notable feedback.

“Well, if you want to include her, too, you  _ could _ always read aloud to her... ehehe~.”

“Oh,  _ jeez, _ Sayori, no  _ way.” _ Natsuki grumbles, shaking her head - Monika does feel a little disappointed about that, but, wait, did she just concede that she can’t read? No, no - definitely disappointed that Natsuki didn’t... ah... want to be nice about it? Yes. That sounded more accurate.

“If you say so! Okay, everyone - let’s share with each other!”

(Monika hadn’t realized quite how much she’d missed hearing that, as Yuri absentmindedly rubs the top of her teddy-bear head.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am trying, a bit, to recapture the sillier essence of the fic i wrote when i was younger... so blame that on any excessive silliness you may note within the text.
> 
> yuri taking monika home next! ❤️


End file.
